James Urbaniak is the kind of podcaster that other producers love to hate. His show, Getting On with James Urbaniak, consists of nothing but a single voice reading a fictional soliloquy, often written by someone else. There is almost no elaborate soundscaping, no intricate plot development, little evidence of endless editing sessions to get the thing just right. Getting On sounds like Urbaniak cruised into the studio, an iced latte in hand, and finished recording before his drink grew tepid. None of this would be infuriating if the podcast in question wasn’t so good.

The first thing you need to understand about Within the Wires is that you won’t understand it--at least not for a while. The serialized fiction podcast is a production of Night Vale Presents, the same team that created Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn’t Dead. Like these titles, Within the Wires trades on an odd and enigmatic style, relying  on listeners to locate the threads as the story unspools.

While audio fiction may have retreated to the fringes of entertainment for several decades, it didn’t stop evolving. One need look no farther than Issa Rae’s Fruit to see the proof. This 10-episode Howl production tells the story of X, a black pro football player, who begins to question his sexuality amidst his ascent to sports stardom. The series brings into focus issues of hyper-masculinity, race, identity, and sexuality through the gripping first person account of X.